Excommunication of Napoleon — 10 juin 1809

In response to the annexation, Pius VII had the bull Quum memoranda posted, excommunicating the despoilers of the Holy See without naming the Emperor. Napoleon had the pope seized on the night of 5-6 July; a five-year captivity began, at Savona and then Fontainebleau. The conflict deprived the regime of the support of part of the clergy and weighed heavily in 1814.

Quum memoranda

The decree of annexation was published in Rome on 10 June 1809; the French flag was raised over the Castel Sant'Angelo. That same day Pius VII had the bull Quum memoranda posted on the doors of the basilicas.

The text excommunicated the despoilers of the Holy See, those who ordered, executed and advised the act. It did not name the Emperor: the wording struck without designating, which made it both unassailable and perfectly clear.

The seizure at the Quirinal

During the night of 5 to 6 July 1809, General Radet scaled the Quirinal and summoned the pope to renounce temporal power. On his refusal, he took him away. The post-chaise rolled north; the pope was taken to Savona, on the Riviera, where he would remain nearly three years.

Napoleon, informed at Schönbrunn, disavowed the form without undoing the substance: he would keep the prisoner. Cut off from his cardinals and his archives, Pius VII refused to institute the bishops named by the Emperor; dozens of dioceses stood vacant.

Five years of trial of strength

In June 1812 the pope was moved to Fontainebleau. In January 1813, exhausted, he signed preliminaries of a concordat; two months later, realising what he had conceded, he retracted in writing.

The conflict cost dear. It reopened the religious fracture the Concordat had closed, gave Catholic opposition a legitimate cause, and emptied the imperial catechism of its force. Freed in January 1814, Pius VII re-entered Rome on 24 May to acclamation — he would outlive the Empire by nine years, and would take in Napoleon's mother and brothers.